Ownership over learning. My favorite element of 21st century education. It stands for much of what has often been missing in the history of formal schooling: encouragement to pursue personal meaning, challenges to take risks, empowerment to share a voice. As I carefully selected this phrase in one of last year’s prompts, I hoped to witness some of these moments of authentic student ownership through our scholarship’s five creative mediums.

Though the efforts of last year’s applicants were inspiring, authentic, and reflective, it quickly became clear to me that this notion of true ownership over learning is still a mirage for too many of our students. Too many have been trained to believe that ownership is simply working hard enough for the grade, or otherwise looking outward for the measure of success.

“Companies want someone who thrives on challenge [and is] willing to learn something new. [They want] a seeker of information, willing to adapt. If you’re the type of person that wants to be told what to do, you might be a straight A student. In fact you might even be a better student than the other type of person.”

And of course, it’s really much less about what 21st century companies want, and much more about cultivating personal authenticity. It’s just that fortunately, it seems the world is starting to recognize the convergence of the two.

So instead, for this year’s scholarship, we’re asking students to examine the issue themselves. The 2017 prompt is as follows: Represent your views about the concepts of education vs. learning.

It is my hope that it will encourage greater reflection and dialogue on what matters most during the many years we invest in formal schooling.

For additional information on our 2017 creative multimedia scholarship, see the overview here (note the graphic at the top–for someone with a longstanding awkward relationship with creativity, I’m grateful for opportunities for growth like these as I try to lead out in pushing my comfort zone), and detailed FAQ’s for each medium here. It is available to high school seniors and college students with at least one year left of school, and has a deadline of April 16, 2017.

Finally, my reflections from last year’s participation have prompted me to also share a list of some do’s and don’t’s. These are meant to help promote the creativity, rather than to impede it (not to mention, to make sure that we will actually be able to review your submission)!

DO:

Do have a great time expressing yourself through your medium! The joy always shines through!

Do double/triple-check the sharing settings so we can view your file. There were quite a few that we could not evaluate last year because of this.

Do choose a creative title to help your piece stand out and to do it justice!

DON’T:

Don’t try to force a medium for your piece that isn’t a natural fit (ie, submitting a video that is really just you speaking would be better suited as a written piece).

Don’t submit a random assignment from a class. The lack of meaning and connection to the prompt is always apparent.

Don’t submit a formal ESSAY! This is a creative, multimedia scholarship. The creative writing medium is for creative pieces, including short fiction stories, poetry, screenplay/scripts, monologues, etc.

Hi, I couldn’t find any other way to contact you, I hope you don’t mind me asking a few questions on here. I’m using the art medium and my art work is on two different sheets of paper but they belong together and are meant to be side by side in a specific way. It’s like in the photography media how you can have multiple pictures but in the same piece, am I allowed to do this as well? If so, when submitting my art piece I do not want it to be confused as two different pieces or be to put in the wrong order. Since I will be submitting it physically should I frame the art so I know it’s in the correct place or should I put a letter inside specifically stating the order of it? Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!

As per the art medium requirements: “Art projects can include any painting, drawing, sketching, sculpting or other method that involves creating shapes on a surface.” (http://honorsgradu.com/scholarship/prompts/) So yes, as long as it responds to the prompt and does not contain explicit material, it will be permitted.